Dying Hornbeam tree?

12 years ago

I bought a hornbeam tree in 2001 and planted it on our front lawn. It developed into a beautifully-shaped tree about 15 feet high, and we have enjoyed it greatly over the years.

This spring, however, we discovered that only the lower one-third of the branches grew leaves; the upper two-thirds of the branches bear only blackened buds. The entire trunk (but not the branches) up to a height of about 8 feet appears to be covered with white lichen-like patches.

Is there anything I can do for our poor tree? Will it ever regain its former appearance?

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Comments (2)

Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
12 years ago
Ug. That is really unfortunate.

Was it a worse winter than usual or anything like that?
gardener365
12 years ago
The answer is no. You'd be better off to remove it and replace with another tree.

What most likely happened is, and is very common now-a-days, the root system failed due to girdling. It's difficult to find good trees anymore because they've been in pots for too long and folks don't realize the epidemic and then 10 years or 20 years later if you're lucky that is, the tree fails. More commonly they don't survive, that long.

Very unfortunate but time to move on.

Dax
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Dying Hornbeam tree?

Comments (2)

Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis

gardener365

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